http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com --
MANY are properly outraged that families of the victims of Sept. 11
are not getting the bulk of the money collected for them by the
American Red Cross. The charitable organization is currently
"reassessing'' its decision to put less in its own organizational
pockets and more into the pockets of the ones for whom the money was
ostensibly raised.

One of the under-reported stories is how many non-profits re-direct
funds donated for one purpose to other purposes. In recent days, I've
received direct mail appeals from organizations using Sept. 11 as a
hook to pad their coffers and make political points.

It should come as no surprise that Congress, after milking
bipartisanship for its own partisan reasons, is about to bilk the
taxpayers out of huge amounts of money for reasons that have little to
do with improving security or helping the relatives of victims, but
everything to do with increasing legislators'own power and influence.

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) estimates that if Congress
committed itself to eliminating waste, fraud and abuse, it could save
$1.2 trillion over the next five years. CAGW puts its own spin on the
efforts of legislators using the national apprehension to push through
new spending bills: "With the massive new spending on defense,
intelligence and homeland security, to say nothing of economic
stimulus, eliminating the hundreds of billions of dollars in waste
thrown down the drain annually is a matter of national security,''
states CAGW President Tom Schatz on the CAGW Web site (www.cagw.org).
"With all the blubber in the budget, there is no excuse for a return
to deficit spending or for tapping Social Security surplus funds.''

Some members of Congress are responding responsibly to the terror
attacks but others are not. Some fear that a vote against wasteful
spending might anger the public and they might be branded as soft on
terrorism.

Paul Weyrich, President of the Free Congress Foundation, believes
there are three political parties: Republicans, Democrats and
appropriators. The appropriators, he says, are a separate party unto
themselves. In a commentary for his organization's Web page
(www.FreeCongress.org), Weyrich writes about a meeting between
President Bush and the congressional leadership. Sen. Robert Byrd,
D-W. Va., Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, reportedly
told the president that if he held to his vow to veto proposals beyond
the $40 billion in new spending he's already authorized, Bush would be
charged with not doing enough to upgrade airport security, inoculate
citizens for smallpox and extend unemployment benefits.

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, agreed at a separate meeting of GOP
colleagues, prompting Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., "to ask Stevens if
he really intended to put that sort of burden on President Bush.
Stevens said that is exactly what he intended to do,'' the Free
Congress site notes.

Congressional Democrats will return to their class warfare rhetoric
this week, according to The New York Times. Apparently, the era of
bipartisanship is over and politicians think they can now safely
return to the partisan bickering which, to them, is normal.

Weyrich's point is that true bipartisanship in Washington is about
ripping off the taxpayers. If a member doesn't go along with the
appropriators, the legislator has no chance of getting anything for
his or her constituents. This is political blackmail that has been
tolerated for too long.

"What is happening now,'' says Weyrich on his Web site, "is a
massive disgrace. These appropriators, in the name of public safety
and order, are dredging up every disgraced program previously
discarded even by the Clinton White House. They have used up every
dime of surplus dollars. And in doing so they are thumbing their noses
at the president and the congressional leadership.''

When the Red Cross doesn't fully deliver on its fundraising
promises, journalists, talk show hosts and Congress rightly ask why.
Too often, Congress gets away with worse misspending, either because
the press doesn't do a good enough job of exposing legislators'
expensive shenanigans, or the public is too preoccupied coming to
grips with the aftermath of Sept. 11 to keep an eye on the public
purse.